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This wasn’t the first time Dick had woken to a warm lump curled up next to him, but no matter how many times it happened, it still made him grin like it was Christmas morning. Damian would often sneak into his room while he was supposed to be asleep, especially during the time Bruce was ‘missing’. Dick understood that Damian was missing his father and was seeking comfort but was too prideful to say anything. Dick understood because he missed his father too.
He assumed that over time, it had become a habit of Damian’s, one Dick was in no hurry to break him out off. Damian didn’t do it that often, but it was often enough that Dick would wake up confused when Damian wasn’t curled up next to him.
Now looking at Damian’s sleeping face, he couldn’t help but to coo at how soft and innocent he looked, compared to his usual scowl and snark. Dick often forgot how young Damian was. Sure, he tried his best to make sure that Damian had every opportunity to act his age and goof around, and that Dick had been slightly younger than Damian was when he became Robin. But looking at his face now, Dick was reminded that Damian was a child, no matter how mature he tried to be.
Damian mumbled in his sleep and snuggled into Dicks' chest. If it were possible, Dick’s smile grew. ‘How cute’, he thought ‘Damian, the mature I-was-made-for-the-role-of-Batman-you-are-all-beneath-me Damian, snuggles in his sleep’. Dick glanced around for his phone, careful not to jostle Damian and wake him up. He was so gonna get a picture of Damian like this, considering how rare it was to see him so vulnerable.
Grabbing his phone from his bedside table where it was charging and unplugging it, he snapped a few shots of Damian’s face. He quickly put his phone back on his dresser and pretended to be asleep as Damian start to wake up.
He faked sleep as Damian woke up and oriented himself. Damian lay where he was next to Dick for a few minutes before gently sliding off the bed. He struggled to hear Damian pad across his bedroom floor and held his breath until he heard the door close as Damian left.
Damian liked to think that he was able to sneak in and sneak out while Dick remained oblivious. If pretending that Damian slept in his own bed most nights was what it took to get him to act his age, then Dick would do just that. Plus, Dick wasn’t ashamed to admit, he loved it when Damian curled up next to him, so of course, Dick wouldn’t say anything. He just wished that Damian would let him cuddle when he was awake as well.
Dick sat up once Damian had left and flicked through the photos on his phone, laughing at the pure adorableness that Damian exhibited whilst he was asleep. Damian often scrunched his face while he slept, so his button nose always looked ripe for booping. Dick often found himself fighting the urge to do just that but refrained because then Damian would wake up and he would realise that Dick knew what he was doing, and he would stop. Now that he thought about it, Dick would probably cry of his littlest brother stopped his nightly cuddles with him.
Putting down his phone, he stood and stretched, groaning in satisfaction as various pops and cracks sounded, getting himself ready for the day ahead. The pictures completely gone from his mind.
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It wasn’t until later when he and Damian were sparing in the Batcave that he thought about the pictures again. As Damian came in low with his leg, aiming to knock him off-balance, he grabbed his ankle and moved with Damian’s motion, throwing him back so he landed on the ground. The moment Damian touched the ground Dick was there and twisting his arm onto his back, lightly pressing down. Damian grunted and conceded to him.
“Much better this time, you almost had me. You’re getting better”. Dick held out his hand and helped Damian to his feet.
“Tt. Don’t be ridiculous Grayson, you were hardly breaking a sweat.” Damian looked away, muttering something about ‘next time’. Dick smiled; Damian had said that the last billion times they had sparred.
Damian’s scrunched face reminded Dick of the small collection of photos he was amassing on his phone. He really wanted some more opportunities to take photos, maybe some of Damian not sleeping. He was planning on eventually making a scrapbook of memories with his family, and he needed some more photos of Damian of him not sleeping.
“So, Dami, what are you doing after this? Any plans?” Dick bounced on the balls of his feet.
Damian looked him over with a raised eyebrow, in the way that made him infuriatingly look like a mini-Bruce.
“Maybe, maybe not, what’s it matter to you?” Suspicion entered Damian’s tone as if he thought that hanging out with his older brother was some kind of torture that was to be avoided at all costs. (Knowing Damian, it was.)
Dick hummed, tone flippant. “Oh, no reason, I just thought that maybe we could do something, you know maybe go see a movie, go to the park, who knows”.
“We have a soundproof movie room with a 70” TV and a surround sound system. A park is nothing compared to the grounds surrounding the manor. I see no reason why you can’t do that here, you don’t need me to babysit you, Grayson.” Damian was already turning away, heading towards the stairs to the manor, probably to hide in the library or his room.
Dick pouted at his little brother’s refusal to hang-out. He had really wanted to spend some time with his youngest brother today, too.
“Come on Dami, I just wanna spend time with you, pleeease?”.
“Grayson, stop whining, it is unbecoming of you and will get you nowhere.”
Damian glared lightly at the nickname but didn’t comment. Dick took that as an invitation. Not letting up, he unleashed a constant string of pleading, knowing that Damian would cave soon.
“Please, please, please, please, please, please, pleeease, please, please, please, please pleeease, plea-“
“Okay! Okay, if I do will you stop whining like an incessant child?”
Damian’s tone was harsh and annoyed, but there was no real heat behind his words. Dick could tell he wasn’t against spending time with him, but he practically objected to any sort of familial bonding on principle.
“Yes! Okay so let’s go see a movie and go to the park, like now. Go get ready and meet me in the foyer when you’re done”.
Dick left no room for protest as the moment he finished his sentence he bounded away out of the cave and into the manor. Damian was left to stare after the man-child, blinking and still processing what had happened before he shook his head and walked after him to get ready for the no doubt riveting day he was going to have.
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The movie went pretty well in his opinion. He and Damian sat at the back of the theatre with a couple sodas and a huge container of popcorn between them. Dick had jokingly picked up a booster seat for Damian, hurriedly placing it back where he got from it as Damian began to practically hiss at him. He later had to run back and get it, almost crying with laughter as he realised that Damian wasn’t able to see over the tall couple in front of him.
“Not. A. Word.” Damian glared at him, challenging him to say something about.
Sides shaking with the effort to hold in his giggles, he mimed zipping his lips, throwing away the key. Damian rolled his eyes at his childishness but turned to the screen instead of glaring at him, seemingly content that Dick would not tease him about his height.
Dick wasn’t really sure what movie that had sat down to watch. All he knew was that it was an action-comedy, something to appease both him and Damian. The movie wasn’t bad, and he actually found himself laughing at some of the jokes and when he turned to Damian he saw him trying to hide a small smile. Dick thought that that made this whole day worth it.
When the movie had finished, he and Damian discussed the inaccuracies of the fighting on the way to a nearby park.
“I just don’t understand why the stupid idiot had to choose between the girl or his mother. There were clearly several solutions that would result in all of them coming out alive, even if he didn’t want to murder anyone, there were still several other things he could have done other than sacrifice himself! What an idiot!”
“Yeah”, Dick agreed, “like he could have shot the guy in the hand, or at least a kneecap, and used those seconds to incapacitate him. Heck, he could have thrown the gun at his head, that hurts I’ll tell you now. Jason has done that to me too many times to count.”
“Hollywood is ridiculous, and people are stupid for feeding those idiots’ pay-checks by watching their movies and buying their merchandise.” Damian was clearly worked up about the film's inaccuracies and Dick couldn’t help but to find it adorable how invested he got about these things.
“Yeah, but you watched the movie too, aren’t you one of the ‘stupid people feeding idiots’ paychecks?’ Besides, Hollywood is more about entertainment than getting something correct. It’s all about the drama.”
Damian spluttered, trying to find a comeback. Dick was saved from the rant that was sure to come out of Damian’s mouth when they rounded the corner and walked past the parks gates. Damian stopped to stare around him.
As it worked out, the closest park to the movie was a dog park. Damian looked like he was in heaven. Dick thought that this had to be the best day ever, he didn’t remember a day where Damian had smiled so much.
They decided to take a walk around but ended up stopping so that Damian could pat every dog he saw. Dick didn’t mind one bit and found that he was really enjoying himself; just walking around chatting to Damian about anything and everything. When Dick saw the ice-cream vendor, he just had to. He turned to Damian, the question on his lips when Damian spoke.
“I don’t care”.
Dick bit his lip. “So… you’ll let me pick for you? And you’ll eat it?”.
“Didn’t you hear me? I said that I didn’t care.” Damian seemed preoccupied with all the different dogs around him and sat down on a nearby bench to pat a dog that had wandered over, ignoring Dick.
Dick grinned a little bit, Damian was going to regret saying that. He bounded over to the vendor and ordered two of the biggest, sugary ice-creams he could, paid for them and practically skipped back over to Damian.
“…I should have known you would do this.” Damian cursed at his carelessness and took the ice-cream Dick offered him. He held it at arms-length, debating with himself how he was going to eat the sugary monstrosity.
“How many different sprinkles are on this?”. Damian’s incredulous tone made Dick snort, almost dropping his ice-cream.
“Enough, I think. Just try it, you never know, you may end up loving it”.
Damian scowled at him but subjected himself to eating the monster in his hand before it melted. Dick decided that this would be a perfect time to sneakily gather some more photos for his scrapbook. Today had been a great day, and he wanted to be able to look back and see photos of today, so he could remember it forever.
He snuck his phone out of his pocket.
“Grayson if you so much as aim your camera at me, I’ll make you regret it”. Damian didn’t look up from his ice-cream. Okay, so Dick admitted that maybe he was not being sneaky about the photo at all, having his phone blatantly pointed at Damian and everything, but he really wanted the photo. It would make a fantastic picture.
“C’mon Dami, just one photo” Dick whined, hoping his earlier tactic of annoying Damian into doing something would work. Damian stuck fast.
“No. Don’t even try.” Dick cursed in his head; of course, that strategy wouldn’t work twice in the same day. Damian had turned to face him now, and Dick was really tempted to just take the photo and run; Damian had a few sprinkles on his face, making him look every bit the child that he was.
Dick sighed but held firm. He wanted that photo. “Don’t make me do this Damian.”
Damian snorted. “Do what? What could you possibly do to make me agree to let you take photos of me?”.
Dick smiled slyly. He opened the photo gallery on his phone, absently swiping through the various photos of Damian he had managed to take.
“Hmm, I don’t know. Maybe, these photos here? I’m sure the rest of the family would love to see them.” Dick turned his phone to Damian swiping across the screen to show Damian his collection. He snickered at the look on Damian’s face.
“No, you wouldn’t dare- you- no! Grayson!”. Damian stumbled over his words, still processing the photos in front of him. His horror, however, didn’t stop his face from flushing bright red at realising that he had been caught. His secret nightly snuggling had not been so secret after all.
Dick laughed. “You didn’t have to sneak into my room you know, I would never kick you out. Besides, why wouldn’t I want to cuddle with my adorable younger brother?”
Damian’s face flushed further. “That’s exactly why I didn’t want to tell you, you would make a big deal out of it.”
“I can keep it just between us, you know, just like I can these photos”.
Damian narrowed his eyes at Dick, his flush finally receding. “That sounds like blackmail, are you blackmailing me?!” There was a touch of hurt in Damian’s voice, and Dick was quick to remedy it.
“Damian, I love you. I would do anything for you, go to the ends of the earth and back again for you. I always will. But I’m also your older brother. As your older brother, it is my sacred duty to tease you and to create memoirs of memory’s that we can cherish for years to come.
“So, as your older brother, I’m saying let me take you out a couple days a month and let me spoil you and take photos of you, and I won’t show anyone the photos on my phone, deal?” Dick sucked in a breath and smiled at Damian, holding out his hand.
Damian’s cheeks were dusted a light pink from Dick’s open affection. He seemed to mull this over in his head for a few seconds before he turned to Dick, suddenly looking very small and venerable. “… Can I still come in and sleep with you?” His voice was small, as if he were scared that now he knew that Dick knew what he was doing at night, Dick would say that he couldn’t do that anymore.
Dick’s smiled widened. “I’ll go into your room and drag you back if I have to.”
Damian nodded, looking very relieved that he wasn’t rejected. It broke Dick’s heart that Damian thought he would ever reject him, so when Damian reached out to shake his hand, he instead pulled Damian into a big bear hug, gripping him tight.
Damian squirmed, trying to wiggle out of the hug. “Uh-uh Dami, I get to spoil you on these days, remember? That means spoil you with affection also.” Dick tutted at him, rocking him from side to side, still not letting him go.
Damian groaned but cuddled into Dick all the same. Dick pulled away first, reluctantly, but he really wanted that photo.
“So,” Dick started. “About that photo?”
Damian sighed, resigning himself to his fate. Dick poked him in his side, making Damian’s lips twitch up slightly. Dick did it again, and again until he was practically tickling him. Damian, giggled, a small smiled breaking out on his face. Dick snapped a few shots.
“They look good,” Dick spoke to him, looking over the photos, deleting one that was bad quality. “By the way Dami, you have sprinkles on your face.”
“WHAT? Grayson, why didn’t you say anything?” Damian began furiously scrubbing at his face while Dick burst out laughing. While Damian continued to wipe at his face, Dick decided to have mercy and wiped away the few remaining sprinkles. Damian complained to him about the injustice he had experienced, and they fell into a familiar banter, the atmosphere light and easy.
(Damian never realised that Dick had said he wouldn’t show anyone the pictures on his phone, he said nothing about showing people the scrapbooks he would make with the photos. But, eh, Dick would get there when they got there. For now, he was completely content to sit on the bench surrounded by dogs, eating ice-cream and hanging out with his little brother. He was already planning what do to for their next day out.)